New Zealand native Isaac Miller-Jose is a towering presence on the court at 6'9". Now in his second year with Manitoba, the forward has slowly developed into a promising talent during his U SPORTS basketball journey. But it's his journey just to get to Canada that's even more intriguing.

The son of an American father and Canadian mother, Miller-Jose moved to New Zealand from the United States when he was just two years old. Interestingly, he didn't start playing basketball until his grade 11 year, when he sprouted four inches. His father encouraged him to test out the sport and he obliged.

"I was already in high jump and soccer and I figured that I was reasonably athletic," he says. "So I thought I'd try and see how basketball went."

Miller-Jose's first year was "a steep learning curve," but by the end of his senior season he had earned starting minutes. After graduation, he opted to take a year off in order to travel and also hone his basketball skills. It was during this time that he signed up with a recruitment team, which gave him the opportunity to play in the states while also getting some exposure from smaller school colleges down south.

"That was a good experience, because at that point I just felt like I needed more time on the court and just playing to get better," he says of his first year post high-school. "That's when I really started to find improvement in my game and feeling a bit more confident with it."

Some smaller NAIA and JUCO schools offered Miller-Jose a spot on their squads, however it was an opportunity in Canada with the Manitoba Bisons that peaked his interest.

His club coach Danny Page had become aware of men's basketball head coach Kirby Schepp through the latter's online coaching tutorials done in collaboration with Basketball Manitoba. After some back-and-forth discussions, Page started sending Schepp the names of some his higher-level athletes that were looking for an opportunity outside of their home country, as the college sporting system is primarily only a United States and Canada thing and not really done anywhere else.

One of those names was Miller-Jose, whose size was of interest to the Bisons bench boss. Additionally, because the New Zealander's mother is Canadian, he was eligible for domestic status.

"For him, his route [in New Zealand] would have been to play in a competitive 18U club and then hopefully get picked up by one of the developmental pro teams, ride the bench, train with them and then get put as a junior player on one of their pro teams and hopefully develop him," Schepp says.

"That's the route that the rest of the world uses and it's fairly effective, at least among their best, best guys. What it leaves out is the guys who are probably going to play lower level pro for 6-8 years and want to go to university.

I think more and more, guys overseas are starting to realize that I want to play but I also want to go to school and don't want to waste those prime university years just focusing on a pro ball career that's going to pay me $50,000 a year until I'm 30 and then it will be over. For those guys, this system might be better."

So far, the Canadian system is working quite well for Miller-Jose. He noted that it took a little while to get used to the level of play in U SPORTS, as well as living in a new country, but he's adjusted now thanks in part to the help of his coach and teammates.

"I've definitely learned a lot, there's a lot of good mentors here," he says, pointing out one assistant coach and Bison alum in particular.

"Joey [Nitychoruk] is incredible. He's been teaching me in the post for the past year and a bit, and learning from [forward] James [Wagner] and all of those great veteran players has been huge. Kirby has played a huge role working on my technique as well. I've learned so much here and I'm just looking forward to using it."

Miller-Jose's confidence has skyrocketed in year two, after spending his first season learning while seeing action in six contests. He registered a dunk in each of the team's first five pre-season games and Schepp is happy with his progress.

"Isaac is a guy that's very new to basketball and is very, very raw. But he's 6'9" and a tremendous athlete and also a tremendous kid who works very hard. Those are pretty good ingredients to getting better and we're going to keep working with him. I think he's got a chance to be something."